Shreveport-Bossier City residents are making a habit of letting everyone know when they're mad as hell.

Controversial entertainer coming to perform a show? Protest. A national business chain making waves over women's rights? Picket. Feeling Big Brother has an eye on gun rights and public prayer? Hold a rally. Tired of low wages? Strike.

Pickets, protests and boycotts are no new phenomena but the digital age amplifies voices and simplifies organization.

Protesting can have a real impact — on local business and local attitudes — if it builds and maintains momentum, which is easier to lose than get.

"Louisianians can't continue to act like Louisianians have always acted," said Debbie Lynn Hollis, president of the National Organization for Women Shreveport-Bossier Chapter. "We can't continue to be reactionary. We need to be proactive if we want anything to change."

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year in favor of Hobby Lobby and the company's right to exclude certain forms of birth control from its employees' medical coverage, Hollis and other local women pitched a protest outside the Shreveport store.

They weren't alone. Women protested across the country, and if Hobby Lobby wasn't ready for that kind of reaction, they should have been, according to Gremillion and Pou Marketing co-owner Anne Gremillion.

"If I'd been representing Hobby Lobby, I would have tried to convince them not to do what they did," Gremillion said. "To me it was a dangerous road for them to take. I'm shocked the repercussions from that have not been stronger."

The company risked alienating a large — if not the largest — part of their customer base by taking such a firm stance on an issue many consider a move against women's health, Gremillion said.

Being a large company, Hobby Lobby can weather the backlash. Some smaller, local companies would have a harder time, she said.

If she'd been asked, Gremillion would have counseled against the Strand Theater having Michael Vick bring his comedy show to their stage. The event drew protests — both attacking Vick and supporting him — and saw a handful of voices raised loudly enough for Strand donors to hear.

The core Strand supporters know Vick's presence wasn't a political statement, Gremillion said, but modern technology, including social media, makes it difficult to differentiate a few loud voices from the attitudes of a whole town.

"You're known by the company you keep, and that's what's following all of these protests," Gremillion said. "When you're in business, you have to make a judgment if you're willing to possibly offend the people off whom you make a living."

Strand general manager Jennifer Hill declined to comment on the impact of the protests. A statement she prepared during the outcry over the show said the theater could not arbitrarily chose which entertainers could and couldn't rent the facility's stage.

Hobby Lobby and the Strand both suffered from negative social media campaigns, something LSU assistant professor of marketing Andrew Kuo said is becoming more frequent and causing greater effect.

"Just a couple of bad reviews can do some major damage," Kuo said. "People are much more motivated to tell someone else about a negative experience than a positive experience."

That damage social media and online communication can do extends from just one bad meal slowing business — the Yelp Effect — to a local business putting its money behind nationally polarizing issues and earning protestors outside the door, he said.

"A mistake many businesses make is assuming Facebook or Twitter is just free marketing with a big reach," Kuo said. "The fallacy there is that to do social media right can be quite expensive. You're seeing it in these protests. It's easy to lose control of branding online."

And from protesters, Hollis said, more is needed.

"Many people like to sit around and complain behind a keyboard," Hollis said. "It can be helpful, but it's not enough."

That's why Jeffery Craig and other members of Louisiana Open Carry Advocates traveled the state to promote awareness of gun laws. Last month, about twenty sympathetic folks gathered at Shane's Seafood & BBQ in Bossier City.

"Many people, law enforcement included, are not even aware that Louisiana has a provision for open carry. Our event has little to do with things happening in other states, except that there is a large segment of the population nationwide that is tired of compromising our gun rights," Craig said in an email. "The message is that gun owners, open carriers especially, are the same as everyone else. We just choose to be armed ... Our goal is to educate citizens that open carry is an option and let people decide if it suits their needs."

But the restaurant caught some heat online. Its Facebook page was peppered with negativity leading up to the event, some commenters still freshly stirred from much larger gun rallies across the country at Chipotle and other restaurants, and retailers such as Target.

Shane's store manager Mike Emmer said the meeting — being armed was optional — was not a political statement and when people ask to have a meeting at his restaurant, they usually are obliged. He wouldn't comment on if there are any particular groups who wouldn't be so welcomed.

"That's what we do," Emmer said. "As long as people are courteous and polite and don't disrupt anything, we love to have them."

Meaning to or not, Kuo said the restaurant was taking a risk with it's reputation — or at least betting on the attitudes and loyalties of its customer base.

"That's tantamount to passive approval," Kuo said. "No. You can't just be a bystander anymore."

This same power of voice is being applied to two major civic issues in Shreveport.

"A protest is always a success any time you can pick up awareness and press because you've picked up the consciousness of the people sitting at home," said Marvin Muhammad, student protocol director for the Shreveport chapter of the Nation of Islam, which organized the MLK protest. "A protest is simply a demand, but a demand must be backed by a bigger power, and that power is the people, the ancestors and the power of the one true God."

Edna Frierson does not understand why air and water samples are beinf tested now after years of complaints from MLK residents.

The MLK protest and — Muhammad hopes — the trash collector sick out — will be the first steps forward for those issues. But alone, he said, no single protest is enough.

"You need consistent action. A picket line, a protest, that's just not going to do it," Muhammad said. "When we hear one another we can actually sit down with each other and solve some of our problems."

Some Shreveport-Bossier protests/rallies of 2014:

Strand Theater: Michael Vick, NFL quarterback and convicted dog fighter, brought his "Michael Vick's Comedy Explosion" to the Strand Theater in July. Two protests — one supporting and one opposing Vick's appearance — took place outside the show.

Shane's Seafood & BBQ: About 20 people went to a lunch at the restaurant last month which served as a meeting for Louisiana Open Carry Advocates. Many of the attendees wore firearms to raise awareness of existing laws.

Hobby Lobby: A handful of people, including the Shreveport Chapter of the National Organization for Women, picketed outside the store following this year's SCOTUS ruling on the company's birth control coverage policy.

Shreveport trash collectors: Nearly 40 Solid Waste workers called in sick two days last week to protest low wages. They are seeking a four-year retroactive $3-per-hour pay raise.

MLK neighborhood: Residents of the MLK neighborhood raised their voices earlier this year to protest black smoke pouring into their neighborhoods from a nearby landfill fire. Since, local and state officials have spoken out and the landfill has been scheduled to close.

Black Jesus: Shreveport ministers, including minister of Praise Temple Full Gospel Baptist Church Bishop Larry Brandon, are attempting to get a show called "Black Jesus" pulled from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.